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Feb y 1807
Inserendum[?]
Letter IV
Montesquieu
Observe, my Lord, the calumny crushed under this insinuation, and the object /end/ to which the calumny is directed. Whosoever, protesting against oppression and extortion /protesting against sham justice/ calls for true and real justice, is /in him behold/ a despot, or an advocate for despotism: this is the calumny: and therefore, that I for fear of suffering under this calumny, we are to be content to suffer under oppression and extortion, and go without justice: this is the end and object of it /the calumny/.
But, my Lord, even this was not enough for Montesquieu. It was not enough that the system of judicature should be maintained in every country, maintained for ever, in the violation of the /those/ collateral ends of justice, without /unless/ it were maintained in the violation of the direct ends likewise: - in a word of all the ends. For in the price that we /men/ are to be content to pay for liberty - the price that can never be too great - the price that is not yet great enough, is another article besides. viz: misdecision without that: for in addition to delay vexation and expense what else can be the meaning[?] of the dangers of justice "dangers [...?] to justice"? Liberty is constituted and exercised not only the quantity of delay, vexation and expense, and of injustice in these shapes, but moreover also by the frequency of misdecision, and the quantity of injustice in that shape.
After this, give me leave to ask my Lord, where is the cruellest most finished[?] despot, where is the wolf, now? In Turkey, or in France? not to speak of England, or of Scotland. But in France, he has found it prudent to cloath himself in the fox; [...?]: - while in Turkey he saves himself the trouble.
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Title: [13 Feb y 1807 Inserendum[?]?]Description: 13 Feb y 1807 Inserendum[?]? Letter IV Montesquieu This /[...?]/ is the price put upon justice, therefore it is the proper price: Such is the argument: - corollary therefore there neither is nor can be any such thing in extortion in the world. In the way of direct assertion, there are many things that even a lawyer will not be ashamed to say: for instance in the way of insinuation there is nothing /what is there that/ he will not say? ││ I am sorry to add - or almost any man, who has a point to maintain, and feels himself hard pressed. In the shape of delay vexation and expense, (open the door to insinuation) there is no mass of injustice so enormous, that may not in that [...?] meet with its defence /find a good defence/. ││ Accordingly it has been borrowed by Blackstone for the defence of English injustice: borrowed up by the Lord President of the Scotch College of justice for the defence of Scotch injustice in the same way it may be handed from branch to branch, and be[?] never the worse for wear, after defending go round the world, defend injustice every where. In Turkey, causes decided and no delay manufactured: proof sufficient to Montesquieu and his pupils, that in Turkey neither property nor reputation nor life experience any regard. Little enough, but too probably: - But would they experience any more if long vacations were introduced there instead of /take place there of/ long [...?] sittings di dia in diem[?], would they experience any more? But suppose that in Turkey sittings di dia diem[?], were to open, and let in long vacations? would this mend the matter? To Christians, to Jews, to Turks themselves, would property and so forth be the more secure? The Bastion[?] where he has heard the parties, trials them "with a bastinado": - Perhaps he does: and could not he[?] /then could not he/ although he never heard it /them/? if /could not he/ like learned Lords and gentlemen on both sides of the Tweed he decided the cause, without hearing from either party a single syllable? In Turkey, suitors /though/ in a civil suit, are made to feel the cudgel: Perhaps so; and what then? My Lord President! Speak my good Lord! Is Scotland Turkey? In Scotland, the noble men and gentlemen [...?...?] in the Commission of the Peace, are they Bastions[?]? The Small Debt Courts, which are so good for ,5, so bad for ,5,1: these courts of unpolluted justice, are they so many cudgelling irons?
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Title: [13 Feb y 1807 Inserendum[?]?]Description: 13 Feb y 1807 Inserendum[?]? To III Facienda Letter IV Montesquieu My Lord finding myself engaged /led on by degrees/ to grapple with the technical system /I find myself [...?] as Counsel for the Natural system/, body for body, (and though as it were in a parenthesis.) Having already had occasion to glance at the defendants strong hold, Montesquieu's shallow and dishonest [...?] and seeing it to continue, wretched /flimsy/ as it is all that ever has been and, or / and or ever/ can be said on behalf of that portion of the mass of injustice to which it was designed to give protection, I know not how, painful /unpleasant/ as the object is to me, to pass it by untouched. I take it up the rather in hopes that Mr Hutchinson and his Right Honourable collaborator, seeing it for once at least in its true light, and being thoroughly /heartily/ ashamed of it, may abandon it as untenable, and in their next edition expunge it, from a work, in every other respect /point of view/ so truly /highly/ valuable. "Vexation, expense, delay dangers[?] even of justice" (danger of misdecision) "the price each citizen pays /gives/ for his liberty: and this, for the declared purpose of satisfying us that so far from being too much of it, there is often /oftentimes/ not enough!" "formalities do to Justice - vary in [...?] sourent[?] trop peu[?]." (Liberty; the commodity, vexation and so forth the price; the more vexation, the more or the better liberty. If this be good as applied to justice , try it upon bread. The more you give for a thing "The value of a thing , is just as much as it will bring" Good in irony; but in sober sadness! Good in [...?]: but in a book of law, a Guide to legislators! Good when /if it be/ applied to justice, try it upon bread. Here is a loaf for you, hot out of the oven, the price of it is a penny: come a month hence for it, and pay me 2 d for it, you will find it then worth 2 d. What [...?] would dare talk as? but what is there that a lawyer is ashamed to write. Suppose a [...?] to talk and deal thus would any man alone[?] ever[?] go to his shop, that could get bread any where else? The supposition is almost too silly to be endurred, even for the moment, and in the way of argument. Esp. des Lois Liv. VI Ch.2. Vol 2. p. 120. View the thing in point of view there is too much of it: view it in another point of view, there is not enough of it: and so there is too much of it, not enough or exactly the proper quantity just as you please. This is Montesquieu all over. Food for debate: tries[?] at some make a figure with: something - thing for every body: support for every thing. This is what recommends Montesquieu. This is what in France is looked for by every body, and by lawyers every where. Truth supported by Reason binds a man in chains, and is a bugbear every where. But, to return to Montesquieu.
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Title: [[058-126] May 1805 Evidence]Description: [058-126] May 1805 Evidence Ends Ch. Conflict This opposition between the two classes of ends is a matter of no light moment: speculation? but that sort of speculation that is not mere speculation : it has had no small influence in practice. Upon no firmer a foundation has that immense fabric of abuse been erected which in the course of this work there will be but too much occasion to delineate. Without vexation, expense and delay, misdecision - misdecision to the prejudice of the defendant's side - can not be guarded against: therefore vexation, expense and delay are conducive to the ends of justice: pursue the one class of ends and you must pro tanto abandon the other: the more zealously you pursue the one, the wider? your deviation from the other. Vexation, expense and delay constitute the price you pay for justice: avoidance of misdecision being the end that which on the present occasion stands as the representative and substitute of all the ends of justice. The higher the price, the better the commodity: the better the commodity the higher must be the price: and a converse the higher the price, the better will the commodity be. If this be good reasoning as applied to justice , try it upon bread . A penny is the price I paid for the loaf I have before me. The loaf I am about to breakfast upon: instead of a penny, had I paid twopence for it, the quantity of nourishment contained in it would have been double. Are men convinced by such arguments, or do they only pretend to be so? Are they the offspring of imbecility or of improbity? In whatever mint they originated, such is the reasoning that pass current under the names of Montesquieu and Blackstone.
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